CEO, Agrology
Dr. Michalis Papaeconomou is the CEO of Agrology, a global manufacturer and supplier of Specialty Crop Nutrition and Crop Protection Products. At the same time, he is a founding Partner of Alectris, a global Operations & Maintenance Independent Service Provider in Solar and the developer of ACTIS, the world’s leading Solar Enterprise Resource Planning system.
As a First Class Honors Plant Scientist and a Doctor of Science in Molecular Plant Pathology from the University of Nottingham, UK, he drives Operational Excellence and Innovation within Agrology to focus on Product and Market Development in global high-value Agricultural markets.
Balancing operational excellence and efficiency with innovation and product development.
I believe that marketable yield increase of smaller farmers will be the largest growth driver of agriculture in Africa. I am stressing the “marketable” yield, because a strictly weight increase in yield is not enough. It must be accompanied by quality increase, and increased resistance to handling and storage losses in order for the products to be competitive in the world markets.
I will be discussing our new Gravital® Line of product. While their effects are varied, I will be focusing in one particular aspect of the products, their capability of increasing fruit shelf-life.
Fruit shelf-life is a very interesting challenge, with wide repercussions to the whole supply chain, from the farmer to the big supermarkets. I firmly believe that our products capability of extending shelf-life without resorting to chemical means, can be a powerful tool for opening export markets for farmers and reducing costs of distributors, while safeguarding consumer health.
"Africa’s full agricultural potential remains untapped. In a recent analysis, we determined that Africa could produce two to three times more cereals and grains, which would add 20% more cereals and grains to the current worldwide output."